'I don’t really feel like I’m playing great tennis': Jessica Pegula rues 'sloppy tennis' after Canadian Open surprise exit

America’s Jessica Pegula has suffered a shocking result at the ongoing Canadian Open. The 31-year-old lost to Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova in the third round of the WTA 1000 event in Montreal with a score of 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Friday. The defeat was a hard pill to swallow for Pegula as this is the consecutive competition where she faced a defeat in the first two matches.

At Wimbledon, Pegula crashed out of the event after losing to Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the first round in straight sets with a score of 6-2, 6-3. Her previous assignment before coming to Montreal was in Washington, where Pegula lost in the second round to Canada’s Leylah Fernandez with a score of 6-3, 1-6, 7-5. Talking after the match, Pegula admitted that she is not playing her best tennis and also rued the fact that she is losing because of playing ‘sloppy’ tennis. “Yeah, it hasn’t been great, to be honest,” said Pegula. “I don’t really feel like I’m playing great tennis. At times I am, but I feel very up and down, kind of sloppy, which I don’t like. It really bothers me. I’m kind of a perfectionist, so I don’t like having to say that.”

Talking about where it all went wrong for her, Pegula identified that she lost the plot in the middle of the second set, where she played ‘terribly’ for three games, which gave back the initiative to her opponent. Pegula thought that at that stage, Sevastova did not earn those games. Pegula also went on to praise Sevastova for her performance in the third set.

“It was a weird match for me,” she said. “I felt like, you know I had total control and then I just played a couple of terrible games for like three games. Then I kind of totally flipped the momentum of the match and I went from being up a set in 2-0 to being down very quickly. I just didn’t feel like I may be made her earned that at that point. I think I kind of gave that away. And then you know when you left people back into the match, they can play really well. In the third set, I felt like she played really good but yea I think I was more annoyed by my performance in the middle of the second set.”

Eyes return to form

Next up for Pegula will be the Cincinnati Open ahead of the US Open, the only Grand Slam where she has managed to get past the quarterfinals stage. Talking about the future prospects, Pegula stated that she has gone through similar lean patches in her career and managed to come out of them. She also expressed optimism that the Cincinnati Open will give her a chance to return to her best form before the start of the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year.

“I feel like I’ve gone through phases in my career, a few tournaments, where I feel like that sometimes, and you have to figure out how to get out of it and not feel sorry for yourself or make excuses,” said Pegula. “I’ve got to figure it out. You have to do it in those moments in matches where you’re in that moment where you have to compete and figure things out,” she explained. “I don’t think I’ve been able to do it great the last couple of matches. But hopefully going into Cincy [Cincinnati Open], I think that’s definitely going to be my main focus. Every single match is, you know focusing on those big points, in those big games. I do think I am playing some good tennis in these matches. There are times when I am reeling off, you know six, seven really good games, then it kind of falls away. I got to figure out how to sustain that higher level against these good players.”